Wolverine: Review Thread

[fighthefutureofhd]

Originally Posted by DVDave

Just watched X1 and 2 and I didn't see how it contradicted at all from the "flashbacks" that were shown. The only difference here is the inclusion of the Ultimate X-Men origins that developed his Victorian-era backstory as James Howlett and the bone claws before the adamantium grafts.

that was actually in the mini series origin.

Originally Posted by Jumpman

Afro,

I'll give you one even better. In Benioff's original script, Victor and Logan weren't brothers. It followed the same path as the film now but without the whole brother situation added in. Victor was working for Stryker the whole time and Logan finally found out. Unfornuately, the Weapon X procedure still took place in the middle of the film.

Another interesting aspect to Benioff's orignal script was that Kayla actually died during her encounter with Victor. There was no twist to her character at the end. Those scenes with Logan living the normal life were all in Benioff's original script.

And yes, they should've ended the film with Logan's memory loss as it was in the X2 flashbacks, thus giving us the continuity and developing the sequel in Japan as was teased.

Seriously, it was really that simple. I just don't understand how it got to THIS.

wolverine and sabertooth are brothers. it's in the comic book series origin. it shows that wolverine and sabertooth had a long history together as brothers. so far the things you're nitpicking are things the movie should be getting right and apparently are.

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by Jumpman

I mean, how many dudes have steal claws coming out of both hands?

Hah!

[Show spoiler]Two: Wolverine and Deadpool. Three if you count Lady Deathstrike.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if they kept piling on more and more characters in the planned spin-offs with adamantium blades coming out of their hands.

The comic book geeks can stay at home at nitpick every detail and keep their noses in their comics for all I care.

Jumpman isn't talking about lack of continuity with the COMICS, he's talking about lack of continuity with the PREVIOUS FILMS (or maybe "later films" is more accurate). If he was talking about lack of continuity with the comic, I assure you his primary points of contention would lie in areas other than "Cyclops shouldn't have appeared in this film".

[GGX]

I just got home from a midnight showing.

I thought it was quite bad. Sure it had its moments. But the whole movie was just to cheesy for me. And I grew up with the comics! The acting itself was laughable.

The most disappointing aspect for me was Deadpool. He is completely changed. Totally ridiculous what they made him into in this.

Ugh... I don't ever want to see this again... It's the worst movie I have seen this year.

[mrpink134]

I saw it also and I have one word. HORRIBLE! How can fox, marvel do this to Wolverine

[UK_fan_05]

This movie just continues with the success of the other 3 X-Men films. Even though they don't live up to the source material like they should, they are great flicks, but generic comic adaptations.

[Scorch]

I obviously had things to nitpick about, but above it all, I enjoyed it. I went to be entertained, and I was. Thumbs up.

[Itputdallotion0n]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

It was a press screening. Originally it was supposed to be last THURSDAY, , but it was pushed back to yesterday.


I don't think it was a mutant parade at all.

[Show spoiler]There was a cabal of mutants he was involved in that was lead by Stryker. That was part that drove the revenge story.

I'm NOT a comic book fan. So unless another Origins movie pick-up on how Team X got developed with a clear defined storyline, I think such a story would alienate audiences who are also like me.

There was LITERALLY a sparse "crew". I can count them with one hand with fingers to spare.

Running time is 1.47. I timed it using my wristwatch, which is what I do for movies that are brand spanking new.


fuad

See thats why it was ok to you but butchered to people who actually follow the comics. This was absolutly butchered, so many of the mutants in this movie had nothing to do with the actual story. These things get popular for a reason and most stories in the comics are good, why do they always run away from the actual story line so much.

You goto the movie to see wolverine, why clog all these others in that had no place in the story and butcher Deadpool wtf was that, that most certianly was not deadpool.

You can stick as closely to the roots of these comics as you can and still makes boat loads of cash, have they learned nothing from Christopher nolans Batmans. Seriously when is the total demolisment of these Superheros gonna end.

All in all, if you dont follow the comics your gonna like it, if you do be forwarned it makes no sense.

[DVDave]

If you stayed after the credits you'd have seen that Deadpool was still very much alive.

Hated that epilogue. Wish they had kept the original ending with Logan in Japan to set up the Miller storyline.

[Lepidopterous]

Originally Posted by DVDave

If you stayed after the credits you'd have seen that Deadpool was still very much alive.

Hated that epilogue. Wish they had kept the original ending with Logan in Japan to set up the Miller storyline.

What? I stayed after the credits, and sure enough, it was Logan speaking Japanese with the bartender.

[Itputdallotion0n]

Originally Posted by DVDave

If you stayed after the credits you'd have seen that Deadpool was still very much alive.

Hated that epilogue. Wish they had kept the original ending with Logan in Japan to set up the Miller storyline.

What i mean by butchered was giving him all these mutants powers. Correct me if im wrong but i dont ever remember such a thing happening.

[DVDave]

Originally Posted by DjMethod

What? I stayed after the credits, and sure enough, it was Logan speaking Japanese with the bartender.

Really?!?!? Wow! The theater I saw it at had a different ending with Deadpool's decapitated body re-animating and grabbing his severed head! Man, I wonder how many alternate endings are out there! The workprint I downloaded had the Logan in Japan ending which was way better.

[ckent22]

I didn't like it at all. It was poorly made, both poorly directed, poorly written, and some laughable acting performances. If this is the first of a series of origin films, then I hope they get better than this.

[Jumpman]

"wolverine and sabertooth are brothers. it's in the comic book series origin. it shows that wolverine and sabertooth had a long history together as brothers. so far the things you're nitpicking are things the movie should be getting right and apparently are."

If you're talking about the series called Origin, no...they are not brothers. They imply that "Dog", as he's called, might become Sabretooth but it's not actually him. It's a totally different character.

All this film did was take the "Dog" character from that comic and decide to call him Victor Creed since in the history of this character, they've flirted with the idea that Sabretooth and Wolverine could, could be related.

And yes Afro, I'm talking about continuity to the films, not the comics...

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by DVDave

If you stayed after the credits you'd have seen that Deadpool was still very much alive.

The problem doesn't arise from him being killed off. Take a gander at the Wikipedia article about the character and you should quickly be able to realize how heavily departed this abortion is from the character so many fans have come to love.

I can't speak for everyone, but my problems primarily fall in:

[Show spoiler]#1: Adamantium skeleton and blades. Not every character needs to be like Wolverine, Fox. Lady Deathstrike is one thing, because a cyborg would come off as a little absurd, but Deadpool certainly doesn't need it. And anyway, wouldn't adamantium katana serve him better than fixed blades coming out of his hand? They very easily could have added Stryker saying, "because Wade Wilson has such an ability with swords, we specially crafted these swords out of adamantium so that they'd prove effective against you, Weapon X," and even then, I don't think him having the adamantium skeleton would have even bothered me.
#2: Cyclops eyes. No reason at all for this, and furthermore, Scott Summers had no place even appearing in this movie at all. He's only here as an attempt to tie in a First Class spin-off and draw the Wolverine story artificially closer to the X-men world.
#3: Taking away his mouth, both physically and metaphysically. The guy is known for his mouth, and not only did they physically remove it, but they turned him into a remote controlled zombie. Terrible.

Hated that epilogue. Wish they had kept the original ending with Logan in Japan to set up the Miller storyline.

I think you missed the thread saying that different theatres would receive different reels with different teaser endings. One of them teases a Wolverine sequel, one teases a Deadpool spin-off, and apparently one of them shows something else involving Stryker. I'm honestly surprised I haven't heard about one showing a tease involving Prof X and the in-development First Class spin-off.

Originally Posted by ckent22

I didn't like it at all. It was poorly made, both poorly directed, poorly written, and some laughable acting performances. If this is the first of a series of origin films, then I hope they get better than this.

Don't badmouth the directing or the acting. The story is terrible and the writing might not be the best, but the directing and acting are just fine.

[ckent22]

Don't badmouth the directing or the acting. The story is terrible and the writing might not be the best, but the directing and acting are just fine.

Both were bad to me, and if they are, I'll say so.

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by ckent22

Both were bad to me, and if they are, I'll say so.

I suppose I should have prefaced what I said with "You shouldn't" rather than "don't", I just figured that my implication was clear enough. Yes, you're free to say whatever you'd like, but it being your opinion doesn't immediately validate it, and when it comes to something as sensitive as this, I don't appreciate such fallacious accusations being thrown around about things you seem to not know too much about.

It won't win any Academy awards for the acting or directing, but they're satisfactory at worst. The faults of this movie lie in other areas, and to project the failures in one area to other areas of production would just be myopic as hell.

[ckent22]

Originally Posted by Afrobean

I suppose I should have prefaced what I said with "You shouldn't" rather than "don't", I just figured that my implication was clear enough. Yes, you're free to say whatever you'd like, but it being your opinion doesn't immediately validate it,

Dude this is a review thread. Get over it. I'm sorry you don't agree, but I'm gonna post what I thought. I'm not going to lie and say something was good when it wasn't.

Keep in mind, just because you think this was good doesn't make it good either.

and when it comes to something as sensitive as this,

What do you mean by this?

I don't appreciate such fallacious accusations being thrown around about things you seem to not know too much about.

Things I don't know much about. Hmmm. I'm glad you think that. I'm in the business, and I know a lot more than you think. Because I know good directing and I know good acting, and this movie doesn't have them. The only decent acting comes from Hugh Jackman and if you're arguing for him, then that's understandable. The rest are far from anything spectacular or decent.

Contrary to what you think, I realize Gavin Hood has won an Oscar, but that doesn't justify several mistakes he made in this film.

It won't win any Academy awards for the acting or directing, but they're satisfactory at worst.

Maybe, it's just me, but I expected more from Marvel. They've hit a lot of home runs in their other films with better directing and better acting. True, this is technically the first of their "origin" labeled films, but I still expected more.

The faults of this movie lie in other areas, and to project the failures in one area to other areas of production would just be myopic as hell.

According to you, but you don't speak for me.

[WriteSimply]

Just saw it again. I wanted to say it before but then I thought everybody knew this: You can please some people some of the time, but you can never please everyone all of the time.

1) The X-Men 1 & 2 (3 caused so much drama in the fanboy community) were based on the comics. But there were so many different and divergent storylines from the 60s all the way to the time of production that they had to choose the one that will please most fans. So here it is: they could have kept Wolverine as adamantium-clawed equipped only but then why make an X-Men:Origin story when the origin comic miniseries diverge so much from the original comics? Wolverine in the original comics only have the implanted blades.

In fact, so many mini-series are very divergent, using alternate realities/stories to work, including Batman's The Dark Knight. In some ways, Schumacher's Batman is also "faithful" to the spirit of the comics and TV series.

Would you even gonna go watch a Supe/Batman movie if the poster is like that?

2) Concerning the implication that the memory lost is caused by the adamantium process, I don't think that's a very logical move to make. The primary reason for not doing this (I've not read the Origins books) is that people want to see Wolverine with the adamantium claws. If you ended it at the dam labs then a lot of people would be disappointed. Not to mention you'd have to show in your movie posters that he doesn't have the adamantium claws.

As for X-Men 1/2 implying that he lost his memory due to this process, that may be the right way to take the scene. But with this Wolverine movie, you can take those scenes as the first memory of himself with the claws that was painful. He couldn't remember stuff before that.

3) As far as nitpicking the new dam set with the old dam set, one word: renovation. And the "implantation bath" could be on wheels.

4) As far as ending this movie with the implantation sequence, I can't see the story arch that leads to that sequence as the end sequence. I don't know how Origins did it but I don't care to come up with a new one. If Marvel wants me to work on the next series, they could hire me. And I'm sure I won't please everybody with that movie either.

5) As far as Deadpool, well somebody have seen the alternate coda. If he can do that, he could incise the adamantium blades out of his arms and make swords out of that. He could also fix his own mouth and the electronics that turned him into a remote-controlled killer can malfunction after the fall. And who is to say that the genetic material they injected in him would last?


fuad

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by ckent22

Dude this is a review thread. Get over it. I'm sorry you don't agree, but I'm gonna post what I thought. I'm not going to lie and say something was good when it wasn't.

I never said you should lie. I just said that you shouldn't declare things terrible about the film that weren't terrible just because other parts of it were.

Keep in mind, just because you think thi s was good doesn't make it good either.

But that's just it. I DON'T think it's good. I just recognize that despite the poor story they went with, the directing and acting aren't bad.

What do you mean by this?

I mean that people are already anxious for a reason to skip seeing this film and even though I've been very outspoken about the things I don't like about it, I don't want it to be a total failure.

The only decent acting comes from Hugh Jackman and if you're arguing for him, then that's understandable. The rest are far from anything spectacular or decent.

Hugh Jackman is good, Liev Schreiber seemed pretty good. Ryan Reynolds hit the spot that I expected him to, which although not necessarily skillful acting, I feel hit the character rather well. I've also got no specific complaints about the dude who played Stryker now that I think about it. Everyone else was nothing special, I'll admit, but just because they're satisfactory or mundane doesn't mean that they're terrible, especially when they're in relatively small, supportive roles. The ones that really matter here are Wolverine and Sabertooth, and they're far from bad, I'd say, Wolverine especially.

Contrary to what you think, I realize Gavin Hood has won an Oscar, but that doesn't justify several mistakes he made in this film.

Care to identify specific directorial mistakes? The only mistake I can think of that he did was agree to work on this film when it had such a subpar story. I can't really blame him for that though, because if I was a director in Hollywood and someone put a contract in front of me and said "you can direct this Wolverine picture", I'd probably sign it without even considering the story might fall flat (especially considering how spot-on Marvel films of late have been).

Maybe, it's just me, but I expected more from Marvel. They've hit a lot of home runs in their other films with better directing and better acting. True, this is technically the first of their "origin" labeled films, but I still expected more.

Marvel is just one of two companies involved in this (the other being the one and only Fox... ugh), but more than that, the individual creative forces brought in matter. Clearly Marvel nailed it with the creative folks on Iron Man and did a decent job with Incredible Hulk (and arguably Punisher War Zone as well), but I'd just say they grabbed the wrong people here.

Honestly, I'd guess that Fox pressured them to make it less about Wolverine and his being a loner, and bring in a bunch of other characters to push the story along. Actually, considering what Marvel did for Spider-man 3, I guess it could have been Marvel that forced the shoehorning, but because I'm mad at Fox for sucking, I'd rather blame them.

___________________

WriteSimply:

#1: Comics used to have that tone for Batman and Superman, but you'll never see it like that anymore. Schumaker's Batman films were true in tone to comics that were 20 years old; Burton's was true to the tone of the modern comics of the time, and Nolan's were true to the modern tone as well (and actually scores bonus points for pulling cues from other likeminded source material, such as the Joker character's first appearance).

#2: The thing has always been that he lost his memory when he became Weapon X. During the flashbacks in X2, they even clearly say that he'll lose his memory completely due to undertaking the procedure. I believe someone already suggested watching X2 with the subtitles on; check it out and pay close attention to the flashbacks with voiceovers.

#3: Minor detail. Not a big deal, I'd say. I can't recall if they identify the location as Alkali Lake in this new film, but even if they don't, I really don't care enough to be bothered much, not when there are major things worthy of my nerdrage.

#4: They absolutely could have ended it with the procedure and his confused escape. I'd personally talk anyone's ear off who would complain that he only gets the adamantium claws at the end. The only thing I can figure is that they'd pretty much be telling moviegoers that there would definitely be a sequel, but I don't see how the teaser at the end has a different message. As far as the studio is concerned, they're gonna be doing sequels on this train of thought while pumping out all kinds of spin offs and they're all going to be wildly successful. I think they would have done just fine basically throwing a giant "to be continued" at the end of the film.

#5: How on earth would he be able to remove the unbreakable metal from his body to fashion a sword from it? In reality, if he became consciously aware enough, he would probably just live with using the blades in his hands instead of traditional weapons (as I'm sure was the creative folks' intent in designing him with blades in his hand as a parallel to Wolverine). And yes,

[Show spoiler]his mouth is gonna certainly have to be fixed, isn't it? But I think the simple point is that it never should've been removed in the first place.

And if mutations giving powers are in the genes, and his genes were changed to incorporate additional powers, they wouldn't just wear off in time, and if they did, why would they have bothered to give him the powers in the first place? Anyway, the only ability they gave him that I'm personally offended by is

[Show spoiler]the Cyclops eyes

. Clearly, what they were aiming for here is not what the fans want when they think of Deadpool. The creative folks behind the movie were thinking "overpowered freak mutant bad dude", and Deadpool in the source material is about as far from that as is possible. If they do a spin-off with this character, it certainly will be a long ways off of what a true translation of the source material would imply.

[Mike53421]

Wow, interesting to see people's reviews on the final product. Anybody see the early and proper version of the movie and if so, any improvement (aside from CGI )?